IntroductionIf you can't get out the units you want to get out in your awesome rush file, if you can't get that that epic dragon in your big file because of a hungry Succubus * , or if you just want some general advice in sp management, look no further as this thread will provide an outline of how to manage your SP in your games. Most things below are ideas or strategies you could use to help with your SP management. They do not work in all situations and, as with everything, there are ways to counter them, but let's save those for later.

Contains:- Some stuff- Part 1: What is SP?- Part 2: SP Management for Rush Files- Part 3: SP Management for Mid-Big Files- Part 3: a) SP Generation- Part 3: b) SP Management- Part 4: Too Much SP- Part 5: Some Useful SP related play cards for Each Sphere- Part 6: Some Useful Soul Skills- Other Useful Links

Some Stuff

- File: Also known as a Deck

- Spheres: Spheres of Influence are shown by the coloured Icons above SP (Shown in the linked image below at the bottom of this bit)

- SS: Soul Skills - these are found on most cards which you can place into the a soul skill slot while building a file.

- LP: Life Points stat on card is how many life points it is worth in the soul skill slot. Whenever a card is let to die off or you get iczer attacked, you lose 1 LP which activates 1LP soul skills, get's 1LP closer to 2LP soul skills etc.

- Cards will be mentioned in this guide with Links and rarity will be shown by the number of Asterisks (*) following the card name:

- For Example: Salamander * - The name has a link to the card database. As it has only one * after it, it means it is 1 star rarity

- Another Example: Flame Emperor / Allind ***** - As above, the name links to the card. It has 5 * after it which means it is a 5 star rare card.

Part 1: What is SP?

- SP is also known as Summoning Points - or unofficially as 'Energy' or 'Mana'

- One of the Major Resources in the game of Alteil

- You ALWAYS start the game with 5SP

- You generally gain 2SP every turn

- Used for nearly everything:1. Raising Sphere levels - 1SP raises sphere level by 1. This is generally permanent and there are ways to gain more/less sphere levels without using much SP, but lets leave that for another time.

2. Playing Cards - A card requires SP equal to it's level to summon AND sphere level equal to it's level before you are able to. For Example Crest Regenerator Knight * is a level 3 Lawtia (purple/black Colour) unit. This means you need to spend 3SP to raise the Sphere to Level 3 and then 3 SP to play the card. As it requires 6 SP, you cannot use it on the first turn because you only have 5. You have to wait until at least the 2nd turn to play it.

3. Using skills and abilities - Some units or Grimoires (Spell cards) have abilities which cost SP. Using the same card as above for an example. His auto skill has SP 0 next to it, this means it costs 0SP to use. Whereas something like Folrart Charge Knight ** has an Action skill with SP 1 next to it, meaning you need to spend 1SP to use it.

4. Reviving Units - Most units cost 1SP to revive unless stated otherwise by a Trait Type skill such as Man-Eating Tiger * where the trait says "This unit uses 0 [SP] when reviving during [Set Phase: Revive]." at a cost of 0SP. Meaning free revive if it dies

- Loose SP/ Floating SP: - SP which is left usable,

- Total SP: - Total SP available for a player(s). This includes the floating SP and units on the field (as they cost SP to play).

- When a unit dies takes a life point, you get it's base Level back as SP

This guide shall provide you with ideas on how to make the most use of your SP.

Part 2: SP Management for Rush Files

This is about making the best use of SP in a rush file, but firstly let's talk about what a rush file is.

Rush files:

1. Generally contain only level 1-3 units

2. Generally aim to bring out a unit every turn

Generally for a Level 3 Rush file (a file with mostly level 3 units) will not have the required SP to play level 3 units every turn. When many players start out they often get frustrated when they can't play all their units due to SP constraint problems. Here are some general ideas for you to take into consideration when making, or changing your file.

Ideas:

1. Use at least 3 Level 1 Sacrificial Units- The reason for this is so you can play a Lvl 1 -> Lvl 3 -> Lv1 -> Lv3, OR Lvl 2 -> Lvl 1 -> Lvl 3 -> Lvl 1 -> Lvl 3. This makes you able to bring out a Level 3 unit every other turn. - Units with good open skills such as the Great Spirits (listed below) or a Emerald Carbuncle ** make good sacrificial units.- Do not revive Sacrificial Units because even though they take a life point, they are likely to activate soul skills which can be advantages. Of course if you are running low on life points you can revive them.

2. Use units with SP gen abilities- Units such as Kesaran Pesaran (also known as KP) * Can be useful at times as they can generate SP with their skills.- Also used as sacrificial units

3. Use at least one Free Revive Unit- Units such as Man-Eating Tiger * can help set up your field by taking damage while protecting life points. As they are free revive they don't cost any SP to revive, leaving more 'SP to use' (Also known as 'floating SP' or 'Loose SP') and bring out more units.- Can be used to time soul skill activations.- Be Warned: Many Free revive units have sub-par Stats on them, so generally don't use too many!

4. Use Early +SP SS- Using a + SP soul skill in Soul Slot 1, sometimes even Soul Slot 2 as well which are activated by your sacrificial units being killed and letting die can allow you to get enough loose SP to Keep sending out your Lvl 3 units in quick succession.- Soul skills such as those found on Witch * or Mage Paladin / Distrier **** are good.

5. Sacrificing Main Units (more advanced)This is a more advanced idea which shall be explained in greater detail, firstly let us define SP Lock.SP Lock: - When a player potentially does not gain (or in fact loses) SP for successive turns causing the opponent to be 'ahead' in total SP

Situations in which you can get SP locked are when your units are outnumbered and can keep being killed be enemy units making you unable to play any other units (because you keep reviving).

- This is when you can let a Main unit die and take a life point (sacrificing) to activate a soul skill, with the right timing you can play a unit on the same turn as sacrificing a unit so you only have a unit gone for 1 turn.- This allows you to have MORE loose SP, in turn allows you to send that unit back out again and bring out more units to deal with the opponent's field rather then being stuck in a be killed -> revival loop until it's too late.- The soul skill activated (if there was one) could provide your field with an advantage big enough to turn the tides, or stall long enough for you to get more units out.- The timing of when to do this and when to not do this differs from game to game and can only really be learnt from experience.- Letting two units die off at the same time isn't good for SP flow or field position so be careful! An example is when you only got one Bellydancer / Kurina *** and one Man-Eating Tiger * left in the card file, you can let one die off and revive the other one, giving back the SP a bit earlier.

Part 3: SP Management for Big Files

This part will hopefully give you some ideas on how to get your higher Level units out, being higher level they need more SP to play the card and More SP to put into sphere level. You would also like to have some spare SP to use grimoires or play some more units. These type of files are weak to cards like Succubus * which drain your SP. Firstly let us define Mid and Big file categories.

A Mid File mainly consists of Level 4-6 units

A Big file Contains at least one main unit of Level 7-9

Both types of files play similarly under most situations. Ideas for SP below!

a) SP Generation

To get the SP for those bigger cards you will need some SP generation cards. You can use the same SP generation cards as used in rush files however they are generally not very good by themselves and require some support to protect them so instead we can use these ideas;

1. SP generation grimoires - each sphere has their own basic SP generation grimoires such as Recovery Powder * which costs 3SP to play, but then gives you 4SP the others will be listed in Part 4.

2. Bigger SP generating units - most spheres have a unit which generates SP when they are set or killed off such as Gaia Anaconda ** which has an open skill which provides a net +1SP (-1SP for sphere level, +2SP afterwards). Refess however has Level 3 and Level 4 units which can actually generate SP while alive such as Moon Child / Miffyre ****

3. Use +Sphere Level SS - Definitely use one if you need level 6 or higher sphere level. This type of soul skill will save you 3SP as you would otherwise have to manually raise the sphere level by 3. Cards such as Owl Sage ** in mid-big Falkow files make a good first soul skill.

4. Stalling Units - units such as Giant Arthropleurid (also known as big/giant bug) ** Can be used to slow the game down and stall for more turns. This allows you to have more SP when you are playing the main units in the file to support them with grimoires or other units.

b) SP Management

This is to help you manage SP or protect SP from those evil SP drain abilities. Here's the ideas!

1. Play a Low-Mid level unit before your main units - This does what number 4 in the generation ability does, and also lowers the amount of floating SP you have reducing the amount of SP you will lose to SP drain should you get drained. Nearly any unit can be used for this position but best to make sure the unit is fairly tanky as It will also 'generate' more SP by slowing the game down.

2. Using Grimoires effectively - Grimoires such as Burning Air * are useless when used when there's only a few cards on the opponent's file, however are great to use when there are many cards. If there are only a few cards, grimoires such as Fire arrow * are better.

3. Pack a Low Level grimoire or unit to use to kill opponent SP gen/drainThis should also be used in rush files as it is generally a good idea to stop the opponent from generating SP. However SP drain can pose a big threat to mid-big files and you will likely want to take them out quickly.

4. Knowing when to sacrifice units (more advanced)Again this is similar to rush files in a sense you got to know when and what unit you sacrifice to match the situation which you can only really learn from playing the game. - - However the main idea is units such as Lightning Wyvern ** Are generally not revived and let to go and maybe activate a soul skill because they have good open skills.

- Another time to sacrifice a unit is when that unit is getting beaten without doing anything. It is often a good idea to let it die, while replacing it with a more tanky unit and using grimoires, or units with good open skills to support it. You could even bring back your awesome attacking unit that you let die originally!

Part 4: Too Much SP!!!

You may ask: "But Jazz, I can't use all my SP in my games and always have like 6 left over! What do I do?"Well, it is possible to have TOO MUCH SP generation in your files here so are two quick ideas:

1. Swap your SP generation Soul Skill(s) for SP drain soul skill(s) - What I mean by this is if you find yourself having too much SP early game you can swap the +2 SP soul skill for a soul skill such as Slave of Chaos / Ebreenu *** which makes the opponent gain 1SP LESS next turn if it kills something. Useful especially in the early game where most units have less then 40HP!

2. Use SP intensive endgame to finish your opponent off - Cards such as Efreet ** Are powerful but also use lots of SP. This could be good idea for a way to finish off your games.

Part 5: Some Useful SP Related Play Cards for Each Sphere

I will list some Grimoires and Unit cards which are useful for each sphere. There are many more, these are just some. Please note that the units section will also include character cards.

Very nice guide. I think you meant Part 5 instead of Part 4 here though.

Jazzock wrote:1. SP generation grimoires - each sphere has their own basic SP generation grimoires such as Recovery Powder * which costs 3SP to play, but then gives you 4SP the others will be listed in Part 4.

my opinionGaia Anaconda isn't worth it. Unlike judie who is a good unit, his stats and abilities suck. If you're using him in a big file, you're gening 1 sp but you're also losing 1 lp. That's 1 less lp the opponent has to iczer. I think that there are better things to pack than him.

Catira is also a very decent ss. 30 max hp is more useful first in situations where the unit you want to hit has defense or a counter that you do not want to trigger. If it hits an undead, that's an extra bonus. It is a useful alternative imo.Steel ss is very good since ppl tend to leave units in a row early (in the current meta especially). Shades, emerald carbuncles, eskatia/dagon, greatsword/dual-wielder, they all get killed. However, sometimes especially in refess files you want to not kill the shade and hope you target and kill only the main unit. While steel gives you a guaranteed kill of the main unit (as it kills a decoy and damages the main), sometimes it is better to take the risk and hope you hit and kill the main unit and leave the decoy alive.